FINANCING EDUCATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Meeting the Challenges of Expansion, Equity and Quality

Albert MotivansApril 27, 2011

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Significant improvements since 2000

Widened participation at every education level Primary: 87 to 129 million pupils (+48%) Secondary: 22 to 36 million students (+65%) Tertiary: 2.5 million to 4.5 million students (+80%)

Clear progress towards the goal of universal primary education

Improved entry rates into grade 1 Improved primary completion rates

3

Higher rates of children who complete primary schooling compared to 1999

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Gam

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Mal

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Nam

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Sey

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Mau

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Con

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Rw

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Gui

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Bur

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Com

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Eth

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ss in

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f prim

ary 1999 2009

4

Increased public education expenditure as a percentage of GDP

Education expenditure grew as a proportion of GDP in 18 countries and declined in 10 countries

5

Increased commitment reflected by real growth of investments in education

Education expenditure grew, on average, by 6% every year since 2000 (in constant LCUs)

6

Official development assistance plays a minor role (mostly) in funding education

ODA to SSA doubled during the 2000s

Dependence to ODA is high in some countries, but overall, only 6% of total education expenditure

Between 2002-2008, 9% (or US$221 million) of committed education ODA was not spent

7

Expenditure per pupil increased – even where primary enrolments grew

1999-PPP$257, % of GDPpc -8.32007- PPP$683, % of GDPpc – 15.8

1999-PPP$43, % of GDPpc -14.72009- PPP$83, % of GDPpc – 21.1

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However, still a long way to EFA…

Sub-Saharan Africa faces persistent constraints Demographic pressure Steady population growth rate - 2.4% annually

In 2030 there will be 77 million more school-age children than in 2010

At least 32 million primary school-age children now out of school

Economic constraints Economic downturn – affects both governments and households

Already weak domestic resource mobilization

Official development assistance for education expected to decline

Increased and diversified demand for education Increasing demand for secondary education

Increased demand for better quality primary education

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Managing teacher recruitment and remuneration policies

Number of teachers increased between 2000-2008… Primary: 2.0 million to 2.8 million (+40%)

Secondary: 0.9 million to 1.4 million (+64%)

New modalities for teacher recruitment: para-teachers, volunteers temporary contracts, community-funded teachers, etc.

…yet large shortfalls remain UIS estimates that one million additional primary teachers are needed to

achieve UPE in sub-Saharan Africa by 2015

Trade-off between the number of teachers and remuneration: average primary teacher salary has declined over time

Teacher salaries are the largest spending item of education budgets 70-80% or more of current expenditure at primary education

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Allocating funds across education sectors: primary and secondary levels

The case of Burundi Increased total education budget

from 3.2% to 8.3% of GDP Shifted resource allocation to

primary education School fee abolition in 2005 38% of budget (1999) to 53%

(2009)

Primary gross enrolment rate tripled since 1999 GER: 49% in 1999 – 147% in

2009 Out-of-school children dropped

from 723,000 to 10,000

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Allocating funds across education sectors: primary and tertiary levels

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The private sector as a funder of educational services

Households contribute the equivalent of 30% of all primary education resources compared to 22% for the tertiary level

13

The private sector as a provider of educational services

Rising demand for higher levels of education increased enrolment in private schools (despite fee abolition) some primary, but mainly secondary education

great diversity in quality of private provision

Need for appropriate and effective regulation Create an enabling environment for the private sector by

ensuring both quality and equity

Allow private sector to finance higher levels of education may enable governments to shift more public resources to priorities affecting broader populations, especially those in poverty

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Cost-effective approaches towards improving the quality of education

Improving education quality is increasingly urgent

Need to rationalize resources by focusing on cost-effective interventions Low cost and high impact interventions

Despite resource constraints, efficiency gains are possible without compromising the quality of education

15

The need to further improve finance data

Addressing gaps in education finance data Coverage: collect new data on household expenditures,

district or regional level revenue and expenditure Quality: align school and wage databases

UIS strategy: no shortcuts to good quality data Sustainable reporting by country teams is essential Capacity development in 10 countries in SSA region Supported by FTI-EPDF and World Bank (DGF)

Review existing sector studies and other data sources (PERs, PETS)

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For more information…

To download the report, see:www.uis.unesco.org

For print copies, contact UIS publications: publications@uis.unesco.org

To find more finance data, visit the UIS Data Centre:www.uis.unesco.org